Duckworth, a Gulf War Veteran, was a pilot in the Army National Guard and flew out of Peoria for more than 18 years. She says that makes the Peoria Labor Day Parade a particularly special place for her to celebrate the purpose of the holiday.

Illinois governor Bruce Rauner joined a Labor Day parade today in friendly territory, west-suburban Naperville. Rauner is not seen as a friend of organized labor. But he got cheers at this heavily Republican parade, marching amidst the high school bands and dance teams.

Members of the union representing non-tenure-track faculty at the University of Illinois went on strike Tuesday morning, launching a two-day work stoppage. Union President Shawn Gilmore says there's been a lot of support from solidarity partners, as Local #6546 seeks a greater voice for its members and longer contracts.

The union is trying to push the administration towards a quicker agreement on a first-ever contract for non-tenured faculty at the Urbana campus.

The union contract between WEEK/WHOI and its newsroom union employees expires at midnight Thursday, and the two parties have not yet reached an agreement.

The no-strike and no-lockout provisions of the contract are also void at that time. Gary Moore is the SAG-AFTRA Union Steward. He says the news employees are planning to be back at the bargaining table in April and will continue to make their case for a fair contract.

Gov. Bruce Rauner has so far focused his attention on business and union issues, and restructuring state government. Things like workers' compensation, tort reform and legislative term limits. But what about his education agenda?

Before he was Governor ... Bruce Rauner was a wealthy private equity investor known in some circles for his involvement in education.

There's even a charter school named after him: Chicago's Rauner College Prep.

He's talked about the importance of scaling back mandates on districts, increasing school funding, support for school choice.

Governor Pat Quinn now has the support of the two statewide teachers unions. The Illinois Federation of Teachers endorsed Quinn Wednesday, despite the union's opposition to Quinn's ideas for pension changes.

Towns across Illinois are paying more and more money into their local pension funds for cops and firefighters. But many are still seeing the financial health of those pensions get worse and worse. Unions and municipalities fiercely disagree on what caused the crisis and how state lawmakers should fix it. Illinois Public Radio's Alex Keefe reports.

The raises were negotiated under the Blagojevich administration, but it was Gov. Pat Quinn who starting in 2011 said he didn’t have the money to pay them. The AFSCME union sued, and a judge ordered the state to pay, with interest.